DAVID WHEELER: The blame game

Monday

Mar 3, 2014 at 12:01 AM

David W. WheelerFor The Enterprise

Having worked in education for sixteen years, not much surprises me these days. I’ve seen people do good things and I’ve seen them do incredibly dumb things. I’ve worked with all kinds of students, teachers, and administrators. Throughout it all, I’ve experienced success and failure and everything in between.

I’ve also seen plenty of initiatives come and go. New math. Old math. Collaborative instruction. Direct explicit instruction. Silent sustained reading. In education, the list of initiatives is endless.

One “initiative” that’s been around at least as long as me is the idea that America’s high schools are broken and need to be fixed.

Just last month, in an article for Slate Magazine, Laurence Steinberg called American high schools “a disaster”. He went on to say that, “in America, high school is for socializing. It’s a convenient gathering place, where the really important activities are interrupted by all those annoying classes.”

Professor Steinberg, cites a lot of compelling evidence to back up his claims that our high schools are more about socializing than learning. Standardized test results aside, consider the fact that “more than half of American high school students who have studied in another country agree that our schools are easier” and that “American high school students spend far less time on schoolwork than their counterparts in the rest of the world” and you see what he means.

Here is where we come back to initiatives. According to Professor Steinberg,” over the past 40 years, despite endless debates about curricula, testing, teacher training, teachers’ salaries, and performance standards, and despite billions of dollars invested in school reform, there has been no improvement—none—in the academic proficiency of American high school students.” Every initiative we’ve tried, he says, has failed.

Dave Wheeler lives in Brockton. Email him at misterwheeler@yahoo. com. His latest book, "Wherever I Am I Want To Be Somewhere Else," is available on Amazon.com. Read past columns or buy his earlier book, "Are We Immortal Yet?" at www.davewheeleronline.

As you can see, he succeeds in painting a pretty dismal picture. While I don’t completely agree with his opinions, I do understand that we have a problem.

So what’s the solution?

According to Professor Steinberg, American high schools need to push teenagers more. “If we want our teenagers to thrive, we need to help them develop the non-cognitive traits it takes to complete a college degree—traits like determination, self-control, and grit,” he says.While this is all well and good – who would argue with teaching these traits? - I think his answer neglects some much larger social issues, ones that schools have about as little control over as they do the weather. Today’s young people are distracted with everything from video games and cell phones to the many societal ills that plague our country, including poverty, domestic violence, and substance abuse.

High schools in particular are also handcuffed by rigid state laws and overly-bureaucratic college dual enrollment policies that force all kids to attend for four years, even if they are ready for college-level material earlier.

Perhaps the biggest flaw in Professor Steinburg’s solution is the very idea of “pushing” itself. A better idea would be to figure out how to motivate students so they want to succeed at something they love instead of shoving knowledge down their throats and standardized-testing them to death. That’s one initiative that just might stick.